South Carolina, which has become a safe haven for women seeking an abortion, passes a law aimed at drastically limiting the procedure

One more state. South Carolina voted Tuesday, May 24 to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. It will have important consequences on the access to this right, because, at six weeks of pregnancy, many women do not yet know that they are pregnant. The vote follows the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to annul the constitutional protection of the right to abortion last June, leaving the states free to legislate on this subject. Since then, about fifteen have banned it on their soil.

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The Republicans had tried several times to pass this law in the upper house of this American state in the south-east, composed mainly of men. They came up against the stubborn opposition of the five senators. Three of them, Republicans, had not hesitated to defy the instructions of their party. During the debates, Republican Sandy Senn accused her male colleagues of “symbolically slapping women by raising the issue of abortion again and again”.

A safe haven for abortion

The senators opposed to abortion finally gathered enough votes to vote for this measure. Before becoming law, it must be signed by Republican Governor Henry McMaster. But the latter made no secret of his intentions. “I look forward to signing this text to make it law as soon as possible”he rejoiced on Twitter, judging that his state would thus protect “more innocent lives”.

South Carolina, surrounded by several states that have banned abortion, had become a haven for women wishing to have an abortion. So much so that local Republican elected officials have made it an argument to defend its ban. For the same reasons, the vote was unanimously condemned by associations defending the right to abortion.